


Go Forward, Do Not Stray

by debwalsh



Series: Deb’s Fictober Surprise! [24]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Bachelor’s Party, F/M, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Parties, Weddings, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 06:59:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16470947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debwalsh/pseuds/debwalsh
Summary: The final act with Steve and Bucky that started with “Impressive, Truly.”It’s nice to have friends.  Even when what you really want is time alone with your fiancé the night before the wedding ...





	Go Forward, Do Not Stray

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve really come to love this universe ...

Online application completed. Check.

In-person process at the City Clerk at the Municipal Building completed. Check.

Marriage license acquired. Check.

Now they just had to wait 24 hours to get married.

If they could just survive their friends.

&&&

“Two words. Bachelor parties.”

Steve leveled Tony with a sour look. “Three words. No. Fucking. Way.”

Sam vaulted over the back of the couch and dropped down to sit beside Steve. “Think of it man. Strippers. Music. Dancing! Great food. Mass quantities of alcohol.”

“What kind of strippers?” Bucky asked, and Steve shot him a look. Bucky winked.

“Um, oh. Uh -“ Sam replied then, figuring it out.

“Yeah, neither of us swing that way. And what do I need a male stripper for when I got him? I mean, have you seen him naked?” Bucky demands with a twinkle.

“Yeah, man, don’t fill my head with that! I really don’t need my self image battered any further,” Sam complained, dropping his head to his hands.

“I haven’t. C’mon, Steve, if it’s so special, how ‘bout you drop trou? Give us a demo?” Clint suggested with a giggle.  

Sam squawked as Steve answered mildly, “Barton, you’re a pervert.” He wadded up a napkin and bounced it off Clint’s head. Clint proceeded to dissolve into giggles and fall out of his chair.

Tony shrugged. “Okay, so maybe a strip club isn’t going to be the perfect solution for everybody. But booze, dancing, music -“

Clint had crawled across the floor and rested his chin on Bucky’s thigh, looking up at him adoringly. “Ah, c’mon. It’ll be fun.”

Bucky flicked Clint’s forehead, and pushed him back to the floor. “I know fun. This is not going to be fun.”  

“No, it will be epic!” Clint cried, mimicking a badly acted death scene right there on the floor.

“No, it will be a public disaster!” Steve corrected, laughing.

“Those are the best kind!” Tony announced.

Bucky stood up and extended his hand to Steve, who took it and immediately leapt up to join him. “You can’t have a bachelor party without the bachelors.”

Tony shook his head with a grin. “Eh, we’ll be having so much fun, no one will notice if you two buzzkills aren’t there.”

Clint flailed a bit then lid spread eagle on the floor. He lifted his arm up and gave a fist pump. “It’ll be even better!”

Bucky nuzzled against Steve’s cheek and murmured, “Geeze, nice to know who our friends are.”

Steve snorted as the antics around them grew increasingly more juvenile. Even Sam, who could normally be counted on to be reasonably adult, was egging Clint on. Only Bruce had remained quiet and out of the fray. Finally, with a shake of his head, Bruce had wandered off, leaving on the the Ridiculous Three since acting like nutcases. “I’m beginning to think we don’t really have any friends.” Bucky shrugged, and Steve added, “That’s okay, baby. I only really need you.”

“Yeah, doll, me, too. Whaddya say we go to our place and get horizontal?” Bucky answered in a loud voice with a lascivious grin, complete with waggling eyebrows.

Steve winked at him and grinned. “Or better yet, up against the wall?”

“Or in the hot tub?”

“Up on the roof!”

“In Tony’s lab!”

“Elevator?”

“Oooh, good place to start!”

“Oh, now you two are just being ridiculous.”

“Yeah, disgusting!”

“But we’re the bachelors!”

“You can’t have a bachelor party without us!”

“If you do, it’s just an orgy!”

Steve and Bucky stumbled into the elevator laughing, holding onto each other, and turned just as the doors closed to give their friends a pair of fingers that earned them mock shock and an onslaught of sofa pillows that hit the door just as it slid shut. They heard the dull thud of impacts as the elevator began its descent.

“Were we wrong to turn them down?”

Steve shook his head. “We’ve been separated too much, too long. I don’t want to spend the night before I marry you with anyone but you. I don’t need booze or loud music or -“

“Strippers. Geeze! It’s like they don’t even know you!”

“I don’t mind strippers. I just don’t like to -“

“Objectify, I know. And yeah, I don’t need a loud bar to cut loose or leave my singlehood behind. I don’t need any kind of ritual to close out the first part of my life, because I’m not. You’ve always been a part of my life, and I don’t need to leave any of that behind. I don’t want to. This is just the next thing we do together. Because I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Steve agreed, and reached to curl his hand around the nape of Bucky’s neck, tugging him closer so their lips could touch.

They were making out like the teenagers they once were when they arrived at their floor and the doors opened up ... to way more sound than an empty apartment should have ...

“Finally! Time to get this party started!” Nat cried, erupting out of their apartment to grab them both and drag them out of the elevator. They looked at each other and groaned in unison.

Was it possible to have too many friends?

&&&

Eventually, Tony, Sam, Clint, and even Bruce were lured by Nat and her evil wiles to Steve and Bucky’s apartment. The place was full of people, music, food, and booze. There was tacit approval for Becca to imbibe, since it was a special occasion, and her guardians were both there to supervise, along with her soon to be wedded brother.

Steve and Bucky tried to have a good time, they really did. But what they really wanted was time together, alone. Quiet, so they could just be, just touch, just love. Instead, they laughed and smiled as inappropriate gifts were shoved at them. They made funny faces and allowed embarrassing photos to be taken as they were dressed and decorated and treated like large living dolls. They accepted drinks from Tony with the requisite amount of grumbling the occasion demanded. They hugged friends who wanted hugs, shook hands where that was the right move, and smiled at the friends who didn’t do the touchy-feely stuff. They rolled their eyes at Clint’s antics, and smiled fondly when Nat grabbed him and subdued him with a kiss, then reached over and pulled Sam in as well. They glanced over at Tony to see the longing he shot toward Pepper, and turned to see the warming blush on her cheeks. They were in a time out in their relationship, but Steve and Bucky had talked about how sure they were that the two of them would be getting back to together.

As one, they looked at each other with widened eyes.

“Best man,” Steve whispered to Bucky.

“Best woman,” Bucky whispered back.

“Hey, we have an announcement,” Steve said suddenly, standing abruptly so that Bucky tumbled sideways in his wake.

Scrambling slightly, Bucky leapt to his feet as well. “We decided to get married so fast, we forgot about an important requirement.”

All of the revellers turned to look at them expectantly. Steve and Bucky exchanged a quick smile, and then Steve announced, “Nat is giving me away,” he raised his glass to his partner in crime, “and Becca is giving Buck away.” Becca preened and blew a kiss at her brother. “But we forgot to choose our best people. And you guys went ahead and planned this bachelor thingie even though no one was tagged -“

“Auditioning!” Clint cried from where he sat in Nat’s lap. Sam leaned over and ruffled his hair, then clamped his hand over Clint’s mouth.

“There might be some truth in that,” Nat allowed slyly.

“I’m not above begging,” Tony pointed out. “Never been a best man for someone I actually liked before,” he added with a shrug. Pepper turned in her seat to frown a puzzled frown. He raised his glass to her with a wry half-smile.

“So, who’ve you picked?” Maria Hill, another of Steve’s company operatives, asked.

“I pick ... Tony,” Steve announced.

“Pick me, pick me, pick me!” chanted Darcy, much to the amusement of her friend Jane. Bucky shot her an apologetic glance - in another situation, she would have been the logical choice, given how much help she’d given him, and them in getting their papers sorted and cleared away. But Pepper really had played a large part in saving him, in saving his family.

“I pick ... Pepper!” Bucky announced, beaming at the CEO in question.

“Oh. Oh, I couldn’t -“

“It’s bad luck to turn down the groom,” Steve said solemnly.

“It’s actually not -“ Jane started to say, and her SO Thor patted her on the shoulder and shook his head.

“Please?” Bucky singsonged, putting on his cheesiest smile as he clasped his hands over his heart.

“But -“

“We can do this, Pep,” Tony said with unexpected emotion. “We can make this the best wedding day so far.”

“So far?” she asked, turning toward him, her eyes wide and tinged with ... hope?

“Well, yeah. Until ours,” he shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, but everyone around him could see the whites appear around his eyes as panic obviously made itself known.

Guy could buy the world. But ask the women he loved to marry him?  

“You call that a proposal?” she asked caustically, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

“I call that a pre-proposal. A statement of intent, if you will. We’re not gonna upstage these two on their wedding day. How’s your calendar look the day after?”

“I’ll make sure it’s clear,” she replied with a grin.

“And I think that’s our cue,” Steve interjected, grabbing Bucky’s hand. “Thank you everyone! We’ll see you tomorrow at the venue.”

“You kicking us out, Rogers?” Tony asked.

“Yes, Tony, yes I am. Buck and I have some unfinished business we’d really like to get busy with. Not that we don’t love you all. We just love each other more.”

“Oh, that’s how it is, huh?” Sam asked from his puppy pile with Nat and Clint.

“That’s how it is,” Steve agreed with a wide grin.

“Okay, people, let’s leave these two to their horizontal mambo -“

“Eh, why limit ourselves?” Bucky teased, causing Sam to make retching noises at the same time Clint ogled them with interest. Nat chastised both her boys and sauntered over to Bucky and Steve, while everyone else started to pack themselves and their mess up.

“I didn’t know you two, before,” she said simply. “I didn’t know you could smile, Rogers. And look at you now.”

Steve glanced over at Bucky, and the two of them shared the same goofy, besotted, thoroughly in love grins. Steve squeezed Buck’s hand, and Bucky squeezed back.

“Didn’t have a reason to smile. Now I do.”

“Yeah, well. It’s a good look. Keep it up. Go forward. Do not stray.”

“Like that would ever be something I’d want. Been wanting to be married to this asshole since ... well, since forever,” Bucky said then, looking at Steve with undiluted adoration.

“Yeah? Well, play your cards right, and you might get your wish,” Steve answered, looking at Bucky with equal wonder.

“Yeah? Thought you were a sure thing.”

“Okay, that’s too much sweet for me. I’m outta here. See you in the morning, boys. Try not to cause any diabetic comas in the meantime, huh?” she asked as she signaled for her boys to follow.

Bucky was already turning into Steve’s arms as the last of them left, and neither of them really noticed the door swing shut behind them. They were already lost in each other eyes, and soon in each other’s kisses and touches.

And the wedding took place the next day, and everyone cried, even Nat. Then Bucky and Steve finally took that honeymoon they’d planned more than two years earlier.

And the following day, all the newspapers and media were ablaze with news of the Stark-Potts engagement.

Steve and Bucky missed the entire circus, wrapped up in each other the way they’d dreamed. They didn’t regret it one bit.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for following along. Next installment is a new universe!


End file.
